TL;DR
- Seven teams from different Ethereum protocols have created the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance (EPAA) to coordinate policy efforts and provide guidance to regulators.
- The alliance aims to protect protocol neutrality, promote on-chain transparency, and maintain flexibility and innovation across the ecosystem.
- The EPAA operates without central leadership or a lobbying arm, coordinating with organizations such as the DeFi Education Fund and the European Crypto Initiative.
Seven of Ethereum’s leading protocol teams —Aave Labs, Aragon, Curve, Lido Labs Foundation, Spark Foundation, The Graph Foundation, and Uniswap Foundation— announced the creation of the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance (EPAA).
The alliance seeks to coordinate on global policy issues, protect Ethereum’s open infrastructure, and provide technical guidance to regulators, without functioning as a traditional lobbying group.
Designing Clear Policies for Fair and Efficient Regulation
The initiative emerges in response to heightened regulatory scrutiny in the United States and Europe, where authorities are evaluating how to classify decentralized infrastructure. With more than $100 billion in on-chain assets, the Ethereum network and DeFi protocols rely on clear rules that recognize the technical complexity and decentralization of blockchain systems.
According to the founders, the EPAA aims to ensure that laws accurately reflect how on-chain systems actually operate, rather than how they are perceived. Its priorities include protecting protocol neutrality, promoting verifiable real-time on-chain transparency, preserving flexibility for innovation, and maintaining global access to decentralized infrastructure. Additionally, it seeks to give developers a direct voice in policy discussions affecting Ethereum and the DeFi ecosystem.
The EPAA operates without central leadership, its own budget, or lobbying arm, coordinating with existing organizations such as the DeFi Education Fund, the Decentralization Research Center, and the European Crypto Initiative. This structure provides technical credibility and practical perspective to legislators, ensuring regulatory outcomes are workable for the developers driving the ecosystem forward.
More Protocols Can Join the Ethereum Alliance
Ethereum currently has a total value locked (TVL) of $78.6 billion, with Aave leading the DeFi market with over $39 billion in TVL. Recent surveys show that retail interest in cryptocurrencies continues to grow, with many users seeking full control of their money and the ability to make digital transactions without intermediaries.
The creation of the EPAA represents a maturing phase in crypto governance, where developers become active advocates for the infrastructure they maintain. While the alliance starts with seven founding members, it is designed to expand and include more Ethereum teams in the future, consolidating a unified front to protect decentralization and innovation amid increasing regulatory pressures
